Outdoor mall as people magnet

One of the new hotnesses in Colorado is outdoor malls. Take this new outdoor mall from Boulder that is pictured above. Just last year it was an indoor mall that nobody went to. So they closed it down put a road through it and added a bit of art. Instant people attractor.

The Future Is Now

Colorado is all about the future. For example in many of the malls that we went to they had vending machines that dispensed a variety of expensive things. This one had Poractiv stuff in it, another one was a Sony vending machine, and another had iPods. It is crazy.

Also we rented movies from a vending machine called Redbox that was at a local gas station. You could get very current DVD releases for $1 a night. The furute is a cool place to live.

Taste Experiment

On the way out to Colorado we stopped by a Presto were we found these two new products. Pepsi is making a new version of its soda called Summer Mix. The soda tasted like normal Pepsi with a bag a skittles dumped in it. It actually wasn’t too bad at first, but it got old after most of the bottle was gone. It is worth a shot if you like the idea of skittles in your soda.
The other taste experiment is from Doritos. They made a new flavor of the chips called X-13D. The game is that we taste the chips and then go to their website to name it. Well we all agreed that the flavor was not good, some think it is honey onion mustard pretzel flavor, but I really think it is hamburger flavor. I didn’t enter my flavor choice on Doritos, but I am sure that I would win with the name of “Dehydrated Hamburger”.

Lay Back

Just chilling in Garden with some good food.

Summer Phase I begins

Michelle had to stay late at Starbuck’s one night when we were in Garden. The place was abuzz with packaged summer joy. I could just feel the change from spring to summer as the menus were changed from Spring Phase II to Summer Phase I. It was magical.

Kiwk Shop goes High Tech

Recently the Kwik Shop (or Kwik-E-Mart as I usually call it) has been remodeling their stores. On the way down to Garden we stopped in one and it had a big new food warmer box thingy. It’s not that high tech I guess, but I wasn’t expecting to see it there.

Summer Tour 07

Summer is here! And Nicole and I are celebrating in style. We are currently touring the high plains making appearances at select locations such as Wichita , Garden City, and various locations in Colorado. Get your tickets now to see the sensation before they are all sold out!

(Tour dates and events to be published as the happen, stay tuned!)

Hoist the Colors!

Friday was a momentous day in the history of the Grog Islands. Their beloved ruler obtained the degree of Master of Arts.
Chris is now the most educated citizen in the whole Grog Islands empire.

(Nicole made Chris a Grog Islands flag for his graduation. It came out really well.)

Stat club picnic

Oh yeah!

The Joys of Grading

Who knew that grading finals would be this much fun? And by 'this much fun' I mean really boring and frustrating.

My two final questions on the exam were meant to be free points. One asking about what statistics is, and the other about interpreting a simple confidence interval. They are messing these easy questions up too much for comfort, especially the confidence interval one. He is the question:

[6pts] Say Manhattan is debating a law about banning transfat in restaurants. People that are for the law say that in a study rats lived 0.42 years longer on average when they did not have transfat in their diet. Since you know a little bit more about statistics than the common folk, you take a look at the research and you find that the research does indeed say that rats lived 0.42 years longer when they didn't have transfat in their diet with a confidence interval of [-1.03, 2.52]. What would be your response to the people that want to ban transfat based on this study? (Explain why you say this.)

More than half the people say that the ban is a good idea because the average, 0.42, is inside the confidence interval. That is *so* not the right answer. No wonder policymakers are taking non-significant studies and turning them into ill conceived laws. Arg! After two semesters of statistics even my students still don't get the simple things.

(The answer I was looking for is that this study does not provide evidence that a transfat diet reduces the lifespan of mice since the confidence interval covers the number zero. Essentially the study was inconclusive.)

Mystery

A couple nights ago during one of the storms that rolled through I heard a really loud pop. At first I thought lightning had struck somewhere near by, but after thinking about the sound it really didn't sound like lightning. After a bit more pondering about it I decided that it must have been a transformer that blew. That solution satisfied me and I went back to sleep. The next day I went to go check out the transformers that are behind my apartment for signs that they popped. But they all looked fine. I figured that they were hurt on the inside and just tried to cover it up with makeup and smiles.

Well yesterday when I got back from school I noticed some kids playing up the hill a bit. And whadda-ya-know there is a huge tree that fell down. That must have made the loud pop. Mystery solved.

Bioassay Rocks!

Half way done with finals.

I scream

Bioassay gave me a take home final that is going to take me forever to do. That is why I am at the Union eating ice cream.

80 man-hours of suffering.

It is good to know that my pain and suffering from a couple of days ago did not go to waste.

The 1 to 16 exchange rate of my suffering to theirs is at an all time high. My advice is to sell now before summer starts and there is no suffering at all.

Starbucks in Aggieville

I got a green tea frappuccino from Starbucks the other day. It is the best thing that I have gotten from there...

it was ok.